New nanotech products hitting the market at the rate of 3-4 per week

Nanotechnology consumer products are in your mouth and on your face

Washington, DC: Nano Silver Toothpaste, purchased in local market. Click here for more information.

WASHINGTON — New nanotechnology consumer products are coming on the market at the rate of 3-4 per week, a finding based on the latest update to the nanotechnology consumer product inventory maintained by the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies (PEN).

One of the new items among the more than 600 products now in the inventory is Swissdent Nanowhitening Toothpaste with “calcium peroxides, in the form of nano-particles.” Today, in testimony before the Senate Commerce Committee, PEN Project Director David Rejeski cited Ace Silver Plus—another of the nine nano toothpastes in the inventory—as an example of the upsurge in nanotechnology consumer products in stores. The hearing marks the start of U.S. Senate debate on the future direction of the annual $1.5 billion federal investment in nanotechnology research and development (R&D).

The number of consumer products using nanotechnology has grown from 212 to 609 since PEN launched the world’s first online inventory of manufacturer-identified nanotech goods in March 2006. Health and fitness items, which includes cosmetics and sunscreens, represent 60 percent of inventory products. The colorful and searchable list of nanotechnology merchandise—containing everything from nanotech diamonds and cooking oil, to golf clubs and iPhones—is available free at www.nanotechproject.org/consumerproducts.

There are 35 automotive products in the PEN inventory, including the Hummer H2. General Motors Corporation bills the H2 as having a cargo bed that “uses about seven pounds of molded in color nanocomposite parts for its trim, center bridge, sail panel and box rail protector.”